Follow these links to information about Home Rule and Municipal Government in New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire State Constitution
New Hampshire Statutes
The 2000 Home Rule Constitutional Amendment and Legislation (A Referendum requiring a 2/3 popular vote majority failed. Had it passed, the Amendment would have expanded Municipal Home Rule Authority. Today, citizens in municipalities remain subordinate to the state legislature.)
Portsmouth Herald Article on the 2000 Home Rule Referendum
Chapter 49-B: Home Rule Municipal Charters In New Hampshire
Groundwater Protection: What Can Municipalities Do?
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Says Municipalities Can "Regulate" Harms, But Not Govern
The New Hampshire Constitution is the only State Constitution that explicitly recognizes a Right to Revolution. Article 10 reads:
[Art.] l0. [Right of Revolution.] Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
June 2, l784